AsiaDHRRA Online

* Published Date: 18 April 2008
* Source: The Scotsman
* Location: Edinburgh
By Raju Gopalakrishnan in Manila
THE crisis over rice showed no signs of easing yesterday as the price of the world’s benchmark jumped 10 per cent in just one week, fanning fears that millions across Asia will struggle to afford their staple food.
In a clear [...]

By Tina Arceo-Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:21:00 04/25/2008 
MANILA, Philippines-It is ironic that the Philippines, home to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and some of the world’s best agriculture schools, has become the world’s top importer of rice.
The last time the Philippines produced enough of the staple to feed its people was 1994. Since then, [...]

From The Economist.com 
PICTURES of hunger usually show passive eyes and swollen bellies. The harvest fails because of war or strife; the onset of crisis is sudden and localised. Its burden falls on those already at the margin.
Today’s pictures are different. “This is a silent tsunami,” says Josette Sheeran of the World Food Programme, a United [...]

The looming food shortage crisis in the Philippines is giving us pause and a certain nervousness about how things will unfold in the coming months ahead. We’ll be keeping track of how the food shortage crisis is spreading across Asia by devoting a post about it every wednesday of the week hence, HungerWednesday. The first [...]

TechTuesday again! I’m really into cellphone tech these days and i found this fascinating read about some interesting ways mobile applications are being used in the Philippines.
The Philippines are a leader in the use of mobile telephones for access to a range of services from m-Banking to m-Education and m-Governance. The Phillipines experience shows that [...]

From IPS
NEW DELHI, Apr 9 (IPS) – Jacques Diouf, director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), on Wednesday described spiralling food prices as an “emergency” that demanded concerted global attention.
“In the face of food riots around the world like in Africa and Haiti, we really have an emergency,” Diouf said at [...]

This is an old research undertaken by PhilDHRRA Luzon to develop a monitoring system that will track the performance of each member NGO based on their set commitment to rural poverty reduction. The monitoring system is part of the operational framework on rural poverty reduction that rationalizes the role of each NGO member and the [...]

here’s a template that LSFM is currently using in their research activities.
download the template here…

The issue of Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SP/SSM) is a key issue in the current Doha Round of negotiations. The SP/SSM seems to be one of few issues that developing countries are quite strong on, and that the US is strongly opposed to, meaning that if the developing countries (G33) stay strong in [...]

TechTuesday and i found this nice read from iicd.
Agriculture is an important sector with the majority of the rural population in developing countries depending on it. The sector faces major challenges of enhancing production in a situation of dwindling natural resources necessary for production. The growing demand for agricultural products, however, also offers opportunities for [...]

I came upon this rather bewildering post in Time Magazine while googling for the current rice crisis. This write-up was datelined Monday, Jul. 02, 1973!!! amazing to know that today’s “rice crisis” has happened before.
Rice is life itself in Southeast Asia, and this year there is not enough to go around. Freakishly bad weather last [...]

This monograph presents the highlights of the farmers’ exchange visits (FEVs) in Indonesia and Japan, conducted by AFA, in cooperation with AsiaDHRRA. It also contains the highlights of the field visits held during regional consultations in Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. All of these FEVs and field visits occurred during the years 2006-2007.
Download the monograph [...]

Urban agriculture is the growing of plants and the raising of animals for food and other uses, and related processing and marketing activities, within and around cities and towns. In the past few years, it has received increasing attention from development organizations and national and local authorities in developing countries. With its multiple functions, urban [...]

The case study aims to look at other models of regionalism that exist in other parts of the world that may help Southeast Asian civil society explore the potentials of regionalism in advancing the interests of the people, particularly the interests of the poor that comprise the overwhelming majority of region’s population.
It aims to propose [...]